The crafty shenanigans of Bossymamma

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Bits and Pieces

I have been having problems with my right arm since early January. These have been caused by a trapped nerve in my neck and have affected my ability to sew and knit. I am still able to crochet and can hand sew as long as it is fairly straightforward. I have to admit to being more than a little bored with crocheting squares of various sizes, shapes and designs! I have been trying to finish off various oddments of yarn – do you have any idea how far one tiny scrap of yarn can go? It seems as though I own the never-ending crochet hook – use it with a scrap of yarn and suddenly you have enough yarn to make half a dozen squares!

I was very pleased to see an idea for making children’s slippers out of three crocheted squares per slipper at the Loving Hands group in Rawtenstall that I am a member of. I am now aiming to make some of the slippers to be sent to a Bulgarian orphanage via the charity Priateli which our group supports. At our meeting last Thursday, John, who is a local volunteer with Priateli, came to meet us. He told us about the charity and what it does. We were able to hand over a selection of items that had been made by us. That is one of the reasons that I joined Loving Hands – so that I am able to have a recipient in mind when I make things. I don’t particularly enjoy making things unless I know where it will be going or who I shall be giving it to.

Apart from the seemingly incessant crocheting of squares, for the last week or so I have been doing some hand stitching. I began by making a couple of patchwork coasters for our bedroom. It wasn’t that we particularly needed them, more that I was desperate to do something other than crochet! I was quite pleased with the result, as was Peter. Isn’t it amazing what can be done with a few tiny scraps of fabric?

After finishing those I decided to do some hand sewn applique. I have never tried this before. The small amount of applique that I have done has been stitched by machine. I drew the shapes that I wanted to use and began cutting out after pressing the fabric. As usual, when I started pressing the iron-on Vilene I fixed it to the front of the shape rather than the reverse! Grrrr. I seem to make this mistake every time I use it. Oh well, I suppose you can’t teach an old dog new tricks!

I managed to rescue the applique and used it for the cushions I made for my grandchildren which I have already posted on here.